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Ward (5e Class)
The Ward "I don't need you, the only one I can rely on is Double Bass! He's always been by my side, now get out of my face!" ''-Diego Fuego, tiefling ward, after being betrayed by his best friend'' A small child lays on the road, having been abandoned by his parents in the dead of night, crying at his misfortune. Four cultists come up to the child, eager to take the child as either a new member of their order, or as a sacrifice. As they approach the child and begin to threaten him with knives, a colossal shadow creature forms behind the cultists, with claws as big as their heads and sharp as their knives. The shadow taps their shoulders, and as they turn around, it rips them all into pieces, saving the child from their evil clutches. Dark mists rises at the top of a tower, as a foul vampire watches his minions terrorize the countryside, enslaving and killing the villagers as though they were livestock. He hears sudden footsteps, and turns around. A man in a simple jacket is standing there, and he claims that he is going to end the vampire's reign of terror. The vampire laughs at the man's foolishness, and dares him to try. Suddenly, an angelic figure appears behind the man, and rapidly attacks the vampire, ripping him to bloody shreds. His body collapses into dust, and the day is saved by the man. Bound to a Spirit Wards on their own are just regular people, only a little more durable than most commoners, but nothing special. However, they are bound to a powerful spirit, known as a guardian, either by their own conscious decision or not. Their guardian protects them, and is the one thing allowing them to be more powerful than other people. Harnessing Life Energy The more mighty powers of their guardians are not without cost, however, and their own life force must be channeled into them to engage these powers. This is almost never enough life force to harm the ward directly, but it does typically make it harder for their wounds to heal without proper care. Sentient or Shields Guardians typically have some form of sentience, a mind of their own, which was typically how they had chosen their ward as their own. However, not all are this way; some may manifest from the will of the ward itself, some might be artificially created, and others still might be the energy of a dead ancestor without the personality of the fallen family member. Creating a Ward Wards gain their guardian in a variety of different ways, which is something you should consider when making your character. Is your guardian one that had hand-picked you from a group of candidates? Did your guardian come into the world from just your sheer willpower? Ask your DM about any possible phenomenons that may have sparked your guardian coming into the world. Additionally, many wards tend to stick together, in small groups, to ensure that they are not harmed by malicious others for having guardians. Is your character a member of such a group? If so, how did they meet the others? Quick Build You can make a Ward quickly by following these suggestions. First, put your highest ability score in Charisma, followed by Constitution. Second, choose the folk hero or outlander background. Finally, choose an explorer's pack, and the slinking darkness guardian. Class Feature As a Ward you gain the following class features. ; Hit Points Hit Dice: 1d10 per Ward level Hit Points at 1st Level: 10 + Constitution modifier Hit Points at Higher Levels: 1d10 (or 6) + Constitution modifier per Ward level after 1st ; Proficiencies Armor: Light armor Weapons: Simple weapons Tools: None Saving Throws: '''Dexterity, Charisma '''Skills: Choose two from Arcana, Deception, Insight, Intimidation, Persuasion, and Religion ; Equipment You start with the following equipment, in addition to the equipment granted by your background: * (a'') an explorer's pack or (''b) a burglar's pack * any simple weapon & leather armor Table: The Ward Guardian You have a spectral being that watches over you, known as a guardian, which may have either come into your life at a young age, or just recently. Choose from The Slinking Darkness, The Lord of Time, The Oni Chieftain, The Guardian Angel, or The Thousand Blades, all featured at the bottom of this page. Your choice grants you features at 1st, 6th, 14th, and 18th levels. Call Guardian You can call out or recall your guardian as a bonus action, during your turn. When you call out your guardian, it occupies the same space as your character, and will follow you. As a bonus action, you can command your guardian to move farther from you, and it will continue to follow you at the same distance as you chose, but they cannot be farther than 15 feet away from you. Your guardian can only be seen by creatures with the Call Guardian feature, truesight, or any other way to see invisible creatures. When you would make a weapon attack, you can choose for your guardian to make the attack, instead, using your Charisma modifier for the attack and damage rolls, and it deals damage equal to your Guardian Die. Finally, your guardian is automatically recalled if you are reduced to 0 hit points or knocked unconscious. Vitality Your guardian drains on your life force to fuel its might, either for yourself or for itself. Your ward level determines the number of points you have, as shown in the Vitality Points column of the Ward table. You choose how much of your vitality pool you expend when you use a vitality feature. You start with two features; Self-Preservation, and Bloodied Strike. When you spend a vitality point, it is unavailable until you finish a short or long rest, at the end of which you draw all of your expended vitality back into yourself. You must spend at least 30 minutes of the rest communing with your guardian to regain your vitality points. Additionally, some of your vitality features require saving throws, which relies on your Charisma. * Vitality save DC = '''8 + your Proficiency bonus + your Charisma modifier Self-Preservation As a reaction to a weapon attack being made on yourself, you can draw from your vitality to increase your armor class by the amount of vitality you expend until the start of your next turn. This has a cap equal to your Proficiency bonus. Bloodied Strike When you deal damage to a creature using your guardian, you can expend 1 vitality to deal an additional die of damage. '''Manipulated Reflexes At 2nd level, your guardian manipulates your movements to allow your reflexes to be faster. You add your Charisma modifier to your initiative rolls, as a bonus (min +0). Uncanny Dodge Starting at 3rd level, when an attacker that you can see hits you with an attack, you can use your reaction to halve the attack's damage against you. Ability Score Increase When you reach 4th level, and again at 8th, 10, 12th, 16th and 19th level, you can increase one ability score of your choice by 2, or you can increase two ability scores of your choice by 1. As normal, you can't increase an ability score above 20 using this feature. Extra Attack Beginning at 5th level, you can attack twice, instead of once, whenever you take the Attack action on your turn. Destroy with Life Starting at 7th level, your guardian is able to consume your vitality to decimate foes. As an action, your guardian can create a sphere of destructive energy and hurl it at a point you choose within 150 feet, where it explodes. Each creature in that 20 foot radius explosion must succeed on a Dexterity saving throw or take 2d6 damage of your guardian's type. You can increase the sphere's power by spending vitality points. Each point of vitality you spend, up to a maximum of 6, increases the damage by 1d6. Life Tap At 9th level, your life force can be drained to give to push yourself further. As a bonus action, you have your guardian harm your soul directly, reducing your maximum hit points and dealing damage to yourself equal to your ward level. You then regain vitality equal to half of your ward level. This hit point maximum reduction ends after a long rest, or from a greater restoration spell or similar. After using this feature, you must take a long rest before you do so, again. Evasion Starting at 10th level, your instinctive agility lets you dodge out of the way of certain area effects, such as a blue dragon’s lightning breath or a fireball spell. When you are subjected to an effect that allows you to make a Dexterity saving throw to take only half damage, you instead take no damage if you succeed on the saving throw, and only half damage if you fail. Consume Essence At 11th level, your guardian is able to consume the essence of other beings. As a bonus action, after your guardian makes at least one successful weapon attack on a creature, you deal additional damage of your guardian's type to one creature that was hit equal to your Charisma modifier (min 1), and restore hit points equal to the amount dealt. However, this puts strain on your body, not allowing you to do it more times than an amount equal to your Constitution modifier (min 1) per long rest, where you are able to regain your strength. Burning Blood Starting at 13th level, your force of your will imbues itself into your life force. When you deal damage with any of your features that cost vitality, you add your Charisma modifier to one damage roll, if you did not do so already. Pure Soul Beginning at 15th level, your guardian's energy combined with your life force grants you immunity to disease and poison damage, and your hit point maximum cannot be reduced by any means. Obliterate Energy Starting at 17th level, your Destroy with Life feature now extends its cap to 9. Additionally, you can choose a number of creatures equal to your Charisma modifier (min 1) to take no damage from the blast. Obtain Energy At 20th level, when you roll initiative and have no vitality remaining, you regain 8 vitality. Guardians Without the guardians that fuel their strength, wards are but regular men and women, no matter how powerful they might assume themselves to be. Guardians range from the benevolent protectors, willing to make sure their ward stays alive at all costs, while others may be malevolent parasites, using their ward only as a means to fuel their own lives, though protecting their host is still paramount to their survival. Some guardians may not even possess their own personalities, merely existing as a tool for their master's survival. The Slinking Darkness A shadow along the floor shifts in shape and size, behind a man smaller than most gnomes, growing claws and fangs, spikes and horns, looking like a ferocious fiend. The shadow rends those the man chooses to die with no mercy, as the darkness only sees one task worth doing, and one task only; slaughter. The slinking darkness is not particularly picky in who they will choose to be a guardian of, as they typically lack most signs of intelligence. Many of them are fragments of powerful fiends, slain to only be reborn as hundreds of shades, while others might be lost souls of evil beings that were unable to pass on, instead possessing the shadow of some new master. While many would assume the slinking darkness is only for those who thrive in the heart of villainy, this is not always true, as the ward does not pick the guardian it is gifted with. Touch of Darkness When you are chosen by this guardian, at 1st level, your guardian's attacks deal necrotic damage. Additionally, you gain 60 feet of darkvision. Enter the Shadows Additionally at 1st level, you are able to brood darkness around yourself, with your life force. As an action, you can expend 3 vitality to cast darkness. You can see through any darkness spell you cast using this feature. Blades to Kill With Starting at 6th level, the weapons of your guardian are powerful enough to cut through resistance. Your guardian's weapon attacks ignores necrotic resistance, and treats necrotic immunity as resistance. Slaughter Like Livestock Beginning at 14th level, your guardian is able to push your life to the limit, in order to feed its frenzy. When you take the Attack action on your turn, and make your guardian attack, you can choose to expend vitality equal to your ward level, to make an additional attack. You may only use this once per turn, and can use this thrice, regaining all usages after a long rest. Deathly Shred At 18th level, your guardian is able to take on the role of the reaper, and rend the flesh of those less fortunate. As an action, while you are grappling a creature, your guardian rushes into the creature, unleashing a flurry of attacks. The creature is attacked five times by your guardian without missing, after which the creature is thrown 30 feet away from yourself, as your guardian's bloodlust is temporarily satiated. After using this feature, you must take a long rest before doing so again. The Time Lord A man with a large jacket, filled to the brim with watches, clocks, and other methods of telling time speaks with some shady figures. He offers to sell them a few watches, for a good deal, when one of the figures suddenly screams bloody murder, lunging at the man with a dagger. The man simply smirks, as time pauses around him, a figure that appears like a living grandfather clock wearing the same jacket as himself appears, and quickly swaps the places of the man and one of the shady figures. As time unfreezes, the figure stabs his own ally in the heart, and is given less than a second to realize this, as the clock breaks the bones of the man. The time lord is one who is selective in their choice of ward, for they wish for their powers to be used to their best ability. They desire one who is controlling, though they care not for alignment, and may sometimes have misjudgement and choose someone who does not fit their desires. Touch of Time When you are chosen by this guardian, at 1st level, your guardian's attacks deal cold damage. See the Future Additionally, at 1st level, you are able to glimpse into possible futures, and change the present to be how you saw it. When you finish a long rest, roll two d20s and record the numbers rolled. You can replace any attack roll, saving throw, or ability check made by you or a creature that you can see with one of these rolls. You must choose to do so before the roll, and you can replace a roll in this way only once per turn Each roll can be used only once. When you finish a long rest, you lose any unused rolls. Overclock Beginning at 6th level, the timeflow and your life energy are one and the same, able to be sped up at your will. As an action, you can expend 6 vitality to cast haste, however you must expend 3 vitality at the start of each of your turns to continue the duration. Space and Time Starting at 14th level, your abilities to manipulate time also function slightly in manipulation of space. As a reaction to being the target of an attack, you can freeze time and swap places with a creature within range of your movement speed. You cannot swap places with the creature that made the attack. You can use this feature twice, and regain all usages after a long rest. Chronostop At 18th level, your powers over time allow you to temporarily stop the timeline entirely. As an action, you can expend half of your maximum vitality to cast time stop, however it only lasts for one turn. At the end of each of your turns during this aside from the initial turn, you can expend half of your maximum vitality to increase the duration for one more turn, to a maximum amount of turns equal to your Charisma modifier (min 1). After using this feature, you must take a long rest before doing so again. The Oni Chieftain A tribal orc chieftain gazes upon an army of approaching elves, the elves eager to slay their long-time grey and green skinned foes, maniacal smiles over their beautiful faces. The orc claps his hands together, and two spectral fists plus a floating oni head form behind the orc, who commands the orcs behind him to charge forth. The orcs, previously feeling outnumbered and outgunned, now felt invigorated with pure primal fury, and race forwards, mowing down the soldiers as if they were peasants. The oni chieftain is one of the most primal guardians, not taking the appearance of a full body, but instead of a floating head and fists. They tend to choose those who they deem to be fit for leadership, even if they are not leaders of a land, or heirs to any throne. Their main power comes in the ability to grant the power of beast-like fury to the allies of their guardian, to eliminate all fear and replace it with burning ferocity. Touch of Fury When you are chosen by this guardian, at 1st level, your guardian's attacks deal fire damage. Warlord of Blood Additionally, at 1st level, when an allied creature within 30 feet of yourself hits a creature with a weapon attack, you can expend vitality to use Bloodied Strike on their attack's damage roll. Army's Anger Beginning at 6th level, the rage brewing inside of your guardian can manifest in your allies. As an action, you can expend vitality to fill a number of creatures within 30 feet of yourself with righteous anger, for 1 minute. For each 10 vitality you expend, you affect one creature. Creatures fueled by righteous anger gain the following benefits. * All of their weapon damage rolls add your Charisma modifier (min 1) as bonus fire damage. * They add your Charisma modifier (min +1) as a bonus to all saving throws. * They are immune to being frightened. You can affect a maximum number of creatures with this at once equal to your Charisma modifier (min 1). Court of the Chief Starting at 14th level, your guardian can make smaller replicas of itself, to guard allies. As an action, you can expend 10 vitality to cast spiritual guardians on a creature other than yourself, with the following changes. * The guardians appear like miniature versions of your own guardian. * The guardians deal fire damage. * The guardians ignore fire resistance, and treat fire immunity as resistance. Fist From the North Star At 18th level, your guardian can fly into the sky to come crashing down. As an action, you can cause your guardian to fly into the sky, disappearing from view. The guardian then comes crashing down, its fists converged into one giant fist, and they smash on a point within 120 feet of yourself that you can see. Creatures within 20 feet of the point must succeed on a Dexterity saving throw, taking 5d8 fire and 5d8 bludgeoning damage on a failed save, or half on a success. After using this feature, you must take a long rest before doing so again. The Guardian Angel A beautiful maiden, long hair and a waif-like figure, sits in a dark alleyway, in a bustling city. As she sits, a few thugs surround her, and demand that she hand over her wallet. As she reaches into her pocket, slowly, a gleaming golden light appears from behind her, as an angelic warrior in full battle armor appears, with pure white wings. The angelic warrior makes quick work of the thugs, and the maiden merely smiles, having rid the streets of a bit more crime, walking away. Guardian angels are normally only for the most good-hearted of people, and those they deem need protection, with their angelic appearance and gleaming light might make them be more commonplace for those who serve under a specific deity. Their power relies on protection and healing, however this does not make them unable to fight, as they are still very adept at doing so. Touch of Heaven When you are chosen by this guardian, at 1st level, your guardian's attacks deal radiant damage. Radiant Shield Additionally, at 1st level, your guardian's protection increases your armor class by 2. As a bonus action, you can transfer this shield to another creature within 60 feet of yourself, which automatically comes back to you when the creature gets farther than 60 feet from yourself. Will of the Gods Beginning at 6th level, smites from paladins are something that your guardian can conjure on your foes. When you use your Bloodied Strike feature, you can expend additional vitality to cast a spell from the below list, at the shown costs, which affects the attack Bloodied Strike was on. The spells you can cast are; searing smite, thunderous smite, wrathful smite, branding smite, blinding smite, staggering smite, and banishing smite. Spring to Life! Starting at 14th level, your guardian can protect you from harm that would otherwise be fatal. As a reaction to being reduced to 0 hit points, you can choose for your guardian to shield you with divine might. You restore hit points equal to half of your maximum hit points, and your next damage roll within the next minute adds additional radiant damage equal to your ward level. After using this feature, you must take a long rest before doing so again. Judgement of Heaven At 18th level, you can call upon the judgement of heaven itself onto a creature. As an action, you can send your guardian forth, to bind a creature within 30 feet of yourself with chains of heaven. The creature must make a Charisma saving throw, with disadvantage if it is a fiend or undead, and advantage if it is a celestial. On a failed save, the creature is magically restrained for 1 minute, and is vulnerable to smites from your Will Of The Gods class feature. After using this feature, you must take a long rest before doing so again. The Thousand Blades add the thing here later Touch of Blades When you are chosen by this guardian, at 1st level, your guardian's attacks deal slashing damage. Deathly Whirlwind Additionally, at 1st level, your guardian is able to swirl around to slash others as it attacks. If a creature is within 5 feet of the original target of your guardian's attacks, you can use your bonus action to make one attack with your guardian on the other creature. Master's Parry Beginning at 6th level, parrying is of second nature to you, and you can exploit it to attack back. When you use your Self-Preservation feature, if it causes an attack to miss you, you can make one melee weapon attack on them, using your guardian, as part of the same reaction. Vulnerable Wound Starting at 14th level, wounds of your enemy are able to be exploited by you. As a bonus action, you can expend vitality equal to half of your ward level, and force a creature within 5 feet of your ward to make a Dexterity saving throw. On a failed save, the creature has a gash cut in it, dealing 1 slashing damage, and making it vulnerable to slashing damage for the first weapon attack you hit it with before the start of your next turn. Storm of Blades At 18th level, your blade can separate into its namesake, a storm of one thousand blades. As an action, your guardian splits into a large amount of blades, and you choose a point within 60 feet of yourself for it to fly into. Creatures within a 20 foot sphere centered on the point must make a Dexterity saving throw, taking 8d10 slashing damage on a failed save, or half on a successful save. Multiclassing Prerequisites. To qualify for multiclassing into the Ward class, you must meet these prerequisites: Charisma 13 Proficiencies. When you multiclass into the Ward class, you gain the following proficiencies: Light armor, simple weapons Category:Classes